The siren call of ski slopes during the spring is the bluebird day - that perfect morning with sunny skies and a bed of fresh powder that's fallen overnight. Skiers hit the mountain in shades and sunscreen.

Located at the top of the Continental Divide, the four ski resorts of Summit County, Colo., are some of the highest and brightest in the United States, offering ski seasons that stretch into May or even June. Of these destinations - Arapahoe Basin, Breckenridge, Copper Mountain and Keystone - Breckenridge is the most popular, with 30 lifts, Arapahoe has the longest ski season, and Keystone is the biggest with more than 3,000 skiable acres. When it comes to a short ski break, however, their size can be overwhelming. In the hopes of finding a destination to explore and make my own over the course of a long weekend, I made my way to Copper Mountain.

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If you go

Getting there

Southwest Airlines and Frontier Airlines offer nonstop flights to Denver from Houston for as little as $70 each way. From Denver, rent a car and drive 80 miles to Copper Mountain, or use a shuttle service like Peak 1 Express, which offers direct service from DIA to Summit County.

Where to stay

Copper Mountain Village: 209 Ten Mile Circle, 866-861-1712, coppercolorado.com. The bustling village includes more than a dozen rental "neighborhoods" with hotel- and condo-style lodging units priced from $119 per night. Off the mountain options include:

Alpine Inn: 105 Lusher Court in Frisco. 970-668-3122, alpineinnfrisco.com. Simple but modern rooms, recently renovated and located sirectly across the street from the Frisco Transport Center, the hub of Summit County's free bus system, from $70.

Where to Eat

JJ's Rocky Mountain Tavern: 102 Wheeler Circle in East Village. 970-968-3062. Just south of the Super Bee lift, JJ's has a lively happy hour/après-ski scene, with a dozen mostly local beers on tap. It's also one of the best restaurants on the mountain, specializing in prime rib. Entrees $13-$31.

CB Grille: 910 Copper Circle in Center Village. 970-968-3113. The closest thing to a fine dining experience on the mountain, CB's menu includes American standards (steak, pizza) with a few nods to local game, including elk and a bison meatloaf at prices more reasonable than the typical hotel restaurant. Entrees $13-$45.

Ninety minutes from Denver, Copper is located just minutes from I-70. Since Frisco, the closest town, is 8 miles and two freeway exits away, ski culture at Copper is built around an extensive resort village. There's a grocery and a liquor store, a chapel, a spa and more than a dozen restaurants and bars. Parking is free (for the most part) and not far from the lifts, and the sprawling village is connected by free shuttle buses and a coach van that will pick up and drop off guests anywhere around the site with 20 minutes notice.

The trails are arranged with equal efficiency. Green slopes are focused above the West Village, where the ski school is located, blending into blues near the center and black diamonds dominating the slopes above the East Village. If that isn't intuitive enough, this ski season Copper Mountain debuted the Sherpa app, which uses the GPS in cell phones to give users real-time updates on mountain conditions, as well as directions to lifts and village destinations.

I felt a little vulnerable with headphones on in white-out conditions, and keeping my GPS activated drained my phone battery, so I used it sparingly. Backcountry skiers or those who like to ski through the tree trails should find it a useful resource on the mountain, though, and it would have likely helped me avoid getting stuck on a mogul-heavy blue run when my dead legs were looking for the easiest way down.

Copper Mountain is known as the place where locals like to ski, and the atmosphere in the village is casual and unpretentious, as long as you're serious about skiing. The resort has burnished that reputation with the creation of Woodward at Copper. On the slopes, Woodward is a section of pipes and jumps for air-seeking skiers and snowboarders, including a new superpipe that opened this season. At 22 feet, it's the only superpipe in North America that matches the dimensions of the course featured at the Olympics in Sochi. In December, it was the site of the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix, an Olympic qualifier for freeskiing and snowboarding hopefuls.

Those who aren't ready to pop ollies on the snow can work on their skills year-round inside the Woodward at Copper Barn. Opened in 2009 with a huge expansion last year, the Barn encompasses nearly 20,000 square feet of training space designed for athletes of all skills and ages. The multilayered space includes spongy tumbling areas, trampolines, and ramps and bowls that launch users first into the air and then harmlessly onto deep foam pits. In addition to skiing and snowboarding tracks, which are mimicked with wheeled equipment rather than fake snow, the gym is designed for skateboarders, BMX and mountain bikers and even wakeboarders. Basically, it's for anyone who wants to compete in the X-Games. With the exception of a twin facility in Tahoe, there's nothing else like it in North America.

Anyone can use the gym, but guests have to start with a coached intro session ($49 for all the facilities, $35 just to jump on the trampolines). Tumbling gave me a serious case of the spins, which my instructor said was common for those not acclimated to the altitude, but I was soon upgraded to jumping off the platform into the foam pit. As it turns out, a foam pit is a lot like quicksand. The more you struggle, the deeper it pulls you in.

"I think I'm stuck," I told my coach. "What do I do if I'm stuck?"

"No one's ever gotten stuck before," he said.

Eventually my feet found the bottom of the 3-foot pit, and I slowly inched through the sea of foam and hoisted myself over the edge. Enough with the foam. Next up was the trampolines. Olympic trampolines are bouncier than recreational trampolines, so tricks are easier - but you have to adjust your expectations for when to release from the surface. Add a tow bar attached to a rope, and the trampoline turns into a wakeboarding practice session. Strap on a snowboard and users learn to catch air and jump over and onto large, cube-shaped mats. The trampoline work has the lowest barrier to entry - almost anyone can jump - but it is as exhausting as it is exhilarating.

Bluebird days should be just around the corner, but so far in 2014 the polar vortex has also meant a powder vortex in the Rockies, keeping some of Colorado's best spring skiing destinations pretty arctic. I arrived to sub-zero temperatures, gray skies and 3 feet of fresh powder, which had been dumped on the mountains in the 72 hours before my arrival. More flurries fell continuously throughout my stay.

If I was already tempted to hole up at the ski village, the weather made it imperative. Though I generally prefer the icy-hot tingles of the outdoor hot tubs or the cozy comfort of curling up next to the lobby fireplace with a good book, Copper has some outdoorsy alternatives even after the last lifts close at 4 p.m.

In Center Village, the tiny frozen "lake" was covered over with snow and closed for ice skating, but the Alpine Rush zip line above it was open. I wondered what a cold-weather zip line that cruised 300 feet would feel like. As it turns out, it feels like an exhilarating, though brief, ski lift.

Much more exciting is the tubing hill in Copper's East Village. For $20, guests get an hour of cruising down four increasingly steep lanes of snow and ice on an inflatable inner tube. After taking the moving sidewalk to the top of the hill, users can cruise straight down one of the lanes or have one of the employees send you careening down with a hard spin. They also suggest alternative tubing options like the Superman, riding down on your stomach, and the Firecracker, where two tubers grab each others' feet and spin down in conjunction.

While it's nothing that those who live near snowfall or topography can't do for free on any given hill, the sidewalk shortcut to the top means that tubing offers the greatest amount of pure, snowy joy for the effort. After all, in the mountains - bluebird days or no - snowy joy is what it's all about.